Science and the welfare state program: The growth of state activism in finland

Finland has followed the Scandinavian model of the welfare state in which the level of state activism is high, the economic pressures on the scientific activities are strong, and the left-wing parties and the Center Party have formulated the main ideas. In the 1970s welfare ideology was adopted in science policy by emphasizing the promotion of socially relevant scientific activities and the expansion of the university system as a means of effecting equal opportunity. Currently, the trend is toward a mixed welfare economy. Programs have been prepared in spite of the radical cut in government expenditure, and without a consideration of the long-term consequences.     

Stereo-motion cooperation and the use ofmotion disparity in the visual perception of 3-D structure

When an observer views a moving scene binocularly, both motion parallax and binocular disparity provide depth information. In Experiments lA-1C, we measured sensitivity to surface curvature when these depth cues were available either individually or simultaneously. When the depth cues yielded comparable sensitivity to surface curvature, we found that curvature detection was easier with the cues present simultaneously, rather than individually. For 2 of the 6 subjects, this effect was stronger when the component of frontal translation of the surface was vertical, rather than horizontal. No such anisotropy was found for the 4 other subjects. If a moving object is observed binocularly, the patterns of optic flow are different on the left and right retinae. We have suggested elsewhere (Cornilleau-Pérès & Droulez, in press) that this motion disparity might be used as avisual cue for the perception of a 3-D structure. Our model consisted in deriving binocular disparity from the left and right distributions of vertical velocities, rather than from luminous intensities, as has been done in classical studies on stereoscopic vision. The model led to some predictions concerning the detection of surface curvature from motion disparity in the presence or absence of intensity-based disparity (classically termedbinocular disparity). In a second set of experiments, we attempted to test these predictions, and we failed to validate our theoretical scheme from a physiological point of view.     

The Priestley duality for Wajsberg algebras

The Priestley duality for Wajsberg algebras is developed. The Wajsberg space is a De Morgan space endowed with a family of functions that are obtained in rather natural way.As a first application of this duality, a theorem about unicity of the structure is given.     

Changes in information as a function of a culturally appropriate smoking cessation community intervention for Hispanics

Tested a 7-month, media-based, community intervention among Hispanics in San Francisco designed to change levels of information on the damaging effects of cigarette smoking and on the availability of culturally appropriate cessation services. Three community-wide surveys of Hispanics were conducted with independent random samples, two as baselines (n = 1,660 and 2,053) and one postintervention (n = 1,965). Results showed that changes in the level of awareness of cessation services had taken place after implementation of the intervention. Furthermore, those changes took place primarily among the less acculturated Spanish-speaking Hispanics who were the target of the intervention. The changes in information reported here demonstrate that a culturally appropriate information dissemination campaign that utilizes multiple channels can produce changes in a community's level of information even when the campaign is implemented for a relatively short period.     

Latinas with Arthritis: Effects of Illness, Role Identity, and Competence on Psychological Well-Being

Tested a theoretical model on the effects of social role identity, illness intrusion, and competence on psychological well-being among 109 low-income Latinas with arthritis. All six roles studied were rated as highly important identities. Sex-role nontraditionalism was associated with less importance of the homemaker, mother, and grandmother roles. Negative affect increased as a function of intrusions into valued identities. Having important role identities contributed to feelings of competence (i.e., self-esteem and self-efficacy), which in turn, contributed to psychological well-being. Competence also mediated the effects of pain, identity, and illness intrusions on psychological well-being. Results suggest competence processes play an important role in well-being.     

Personality and Job Performance in Financial Services Managers

This article presents research in which the Five Factor Model of personality was tested as a predictor of job performance. 125 financial services managers who had enrolled in a potential evaluation programme were given the NEO-FFI, a questionnaire designed for measuring the Big Five. Job performance was assessed using nine rating scales and they were grouped into two components: job problem-solving ability and job motivation. Also, one single scale for measuring global job performance was used. The results show that Neuroticism and Conscientiousness correlated with the two components and with the global measure of job performance. Extraversion, Openness and Agreeableness are correlated with one facet or with the global rating of job performance. Taken together, the results suggest that the Five Factor Model is a valid predictor of job performance. The implications of the results for practice and future research are discussed.     

BEHAVIORAL CUSPS: A DEVELOPMENTAL AND PRAGMATIC CONCEPT FOR BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS

Most concepts of development explain certain behavior changes as products or markers of the invariable succession of emerging periods, stages, refinements, or achievements that define and order much of an individual's life. A different but comparable concept can be derived from the most basic mechanisms of behavior analysis, which are its environmental contingencies, and from its most basic strategy, which is to study behavior as its subject matter. From a behavior-analytic perspective, the most fundamental developmental questions are (a) whether these contingencies vary in any systematic way across the life span, and thus make behavior change in a correspondingly systematic way; and (b) whether some of these contingencies and their changes have more far-reaching consequences than others, in terms of the importance to the organism and others, of the behavior classes they change. Certain behavior changes open the door to especially broad or especially important further behavior change, leading to the concept of the behavioral cusp. A behavioral cusp, then, is any behavior change that brings the organism's behavior into contact with new contingencies that have even more far-reaching consequences. Of all the environmental contingencies that change or maintain behavior, those that accomplish cusps are developmental. Behavior change remains the fundamental phenomenon of development for a behavior-analytic view; a cusp is a special instance of behavior change, a change crucial to what can come next.     

An alternative assessment of children's comprehension of relative clauses

Methodological difficulties are identified in the assessment of children's comprehension of relative clauses (RCs) by means of the standard acting-out procedure. An alternative experimental task is proposed which attempts to minimize these difficulties while exploring the advantages of the acting-out technique. An experiment is reported in which Portuguese-speaking 3- to 6-year olds were tested by means of this alternative task. The results show children being affected by both the position and the focus of the RC in the same way adults have been reported to be and an error analysis suggests that most of children's difficulties can be ascribed to memory overload while RCs are processed as noun modifier sentences. These results contradict the view that there are developmental differences with regard to the way sentences with RCs are parsed and that processing load induces errors particularly manifested in right-branching subject focus sentences. Developmental changes taking place between the ages of 3 and 6 are considered and questions are raised concerning development from the age of 5.The research reported here was carried out while the author read for the PhD degree at the University of London. The writing up of this paper was financially supported by a postdoctoral grant from the Brazilian Research Council (CNPq: 302103-86.4).